Justice Raúl Zaffaroni admitted he is “concerned” over Federal Judge Norberto Oyarbide’s recent purchase of an expensive ring “just like he would be if any other public official” made such an extravagant acquisition.
A prosecutor’s office in Tucumán has pressed charges against Oyarbide and asked for an embezzlement investigation after news broke that the judge had acquired a diamond ring valued in $250,000.
“The media has picked up this story from the wrong angle,” he said, explaining that the matter is not whether he is wearing a ring or not, but “about a public official that engages in spending that is disproportionate to his earnings.”
“I don’t wear rings. I don’t like jewelry. I don’t even know if there are rings that cost $250,000,” Zaffaroni said.
“If he wants to buy a ring or a stamp collection, that’s his problem,” he stated, “but the public concern is in his investments, which are disproportionate to his earnings,” the judge said.
Peronist Oscar López, a former cultural attaché to the Argentine embassy in Germany during the first Menem administration and a self-proclaimed “anti-Kirchnerite,” pressed charges against Oyarbide.
López explained that, after learning of the news of the purchase, he decided to file charges against him because “he must justify the increase in his assets.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald